One Last Look Back
by LexSleuther
Summary: One month before graduation, Kirigiri and Naegi reminisce about their time at Hope's Peak Academy, and both try to pinpoint the time they had realised they were in love. {Naegiri}


**_A/N:_** ** _Dedicated to Baka2niisan on Tumblr for messaging and keeping me company while I wrote this :)_**

 _ **XxXChapter One - Blossoming FriendshipXxX**_

"Only one month left, Kyo-chan."

Kyoko Kirigiri raised an eyebrow at her boyfriend as he sat down across from her with two cups of coffee in his hand, handing one to her. They often liked to spend their Sunday mornings in the cafeteria like this, with no lessons to go to, students would often get up much later on Sundays. Which meant that Naegi and Kirigiri, having gotten up earlier, almost had the cafeteria to themselves, save for a few drowsy students.

"One month until graduation, you mean." His girlfriend of almost two years replied. He nodded, taking a sip from his coffee and wincing when it burned his tongue a little. This didn't go unnoticed by the sharp-eyed detective in front of him.

He grinned when a soft smirk adorned her otherwise emotionless face, even after two years of dating, and an even longer time of friendship, his heart skipped a beat when she genuinely smiled. It was so rare to see her open up and let people see her emotions that he had always felt special for being the one person who could always draw it out of her, and made it his personal mission to do so. Even if it involved him making a fool of himself.

"We've been through so much as a class, it's kind of sad to think we'll all be parting ways after this." She said.

"Remember how we first met?" He suddenly asked, the girl across from him raised an eyebrow in question.

"We were introduced in class at first, correct? You were in the infirmary for the first day because Oowada-san knocked you out, so the teacher had to reintroduce you when you recovered."

His hand automatically went to his right cheek, where he had been punched, when the painful memory of that day ran through his mind. He shook his head, "Let me rephrase, remember when we first became friends?"

Another thoughtful look crossed the girl's face as she nodded.

 ** _XxXxX_**

 _"Hey, look! It's the Talentless Luckster of the year!" A third year declared loudly to his two friends, who guffawed loudly, as Naegi walked into the disposal room. He had been in charge of class clean-up and Oowada had destroyed another table earlier in an argument with Ishimaru, hence the heavy garbage bag full of broken wood and the three splinters in his hand. He ignored the bullying calls of the three other students that were very clearly blowing off their cleaning duties and made his way to the incinerator on the other side of the room._

 _"Ooh, how unlucky for the Luckster. The incinerator's broke, dude. Gotta use the trash chute today." Another of the third years told him. Upon closer inspection of the contraption, the student's claim was proved true, and so, quite frustratedly, Naegi hauled the garbage back over his shoulder once more and made his way to the trash chute on the wall. Unsuspectingly dumping the wood-filled bag down the hole, he didn't notice the door to the disposal room open, nor did he notice the soft footsteps coming up behind him, or the suppressed snickers from the other side of the room, until it was too late._

 _He had barely finished dusting the wood shavings off of his trousers when the palms of two hands connected with his back, the force caught him so off guard that his body didn't put up any resistance, and before he realised what was happening, the mouth of the open chute in front of him began to get closer, and then it swallowed him whole._

 _'Great, first week of school: My shower door breaks, I get knocked out by the head of a biker gang and then pushed down a trash chute. Only at Hope's Peak Academy!'_

 _Landing unceremoniously into a pile of garbage bags, he winced as his butt landed on a corner of the broken table he had tossed down here just before. Makoto Naegi wondered to himself whether his 'good luck' title was the biggest lie of his life._

 _He was so consumed with this feeling of utter defeat that he didn't even bother to get up from where he was sitting, he didn't even bother yelling up at the three bullies whom he could still hear laughing loudly at the top of the chute above him, their voices bouncing off the metal down to where he could hear them clearly._

 _"Guess Mr Luckster isn't so lucky after all!" Oh how original, like he hadn't heard_ that one _before._

 _Suddenly a voice, female from the sound of it, interrupted their laughter, "How immature considering_ we're _the first years here." The rambunctious laughter ceased immediately, and it was a few tense seconds before a third year spoke._

 _"Hey… ain't you the Headmaster's kid?!" He said, his voice wavering slightly._

 _"And if I am?" The moment these words were spoken there was a second of silence, like the third years realised what they had just done: openly bullied a younger student in front of the most important man in the school's daughter._

 _"H-holy crap! We're screwed!"_

 _"Don't report us, it was all Mitsuo's idea!"_

 _"What the hell, Adachi! You're the one who pushed him!"_

 _Naegi listened as the three bullies suddenly lost their cocky attitudes and began arguing over who the culprit was and begging the second girl to spare them. He heard the girl sigh._

 _"My father won't hear about this, so long as I don't see you picking on him again, and get out of here, now." Voices agreeing desperately and hurried footsteps fleeing the scene could be heard, leaving the female voice, and Naegi down the trash chute, alone._

 _"Erm, hey do you think you could help me out here?" He yelled up._

 _"Wait here." The other girl said before her footsteps were heard walking away. The sound of the trash room door slamming shut echoed down the metal tunnel._

 _Ten incredibly uneventful minutes passed by in which Naegi sat with his knees to his chest in the middle of a questionable amount of discarded noodle cups and wooden parts from the broken table, amongst an entire building's worth of high schoolers' garbage. It didn't exactly smell like roses down there, either._

 _Abruptly breaking the eerie silence, the sound of scraping metal pierced his ears and suddenly, a figure dropped from the mouth of the chute and landed right next to him._

 _Poker straight, soft, lavender coloured hair that fell to her waist with a single braid on one side of it, startling violet eyes that seemed as if they withheld all her emotions and porcelain skin. She wore dark gloves along with her uniform, but what ironically struck Naegi the most was the fact that her face showed next to no emotion whatsoever, not even a wince from landing in a trash heap, or annoyance that she had to do this to save a classmate she didn't even know. To Naegi, a person who wore his heart on his sleeve most of the time, this was almost alien to him. He knew exactly who this was: Kyoko Kirigiri, the Ultimate Detective and headmaster's daughter._

 _The girl turned to face him, an analysing look crossing her features. Naegi tried to resist it, but he couldn't help his eyes straying to the top of her head…_

 _"What are you staring at?" She questioned, noticing his lack of eye contact with her, and Naegi had to stifle a chuckle. She looked so serious and yet-_

 _"You have a noodle cup on your head, Kirigiri-san." Her eyes widened slightly and she flicked her hand above her head, knocking the cup away. This time, Naegi let a small laugh escape._

 _"Follow me." She gestured to him and got up from her landing spot, clearly not as amused as he was. He ran to catch up with her as she made her through the mountains of rubbish towards a barred metal gate that blocked them from the other side of the room, where Naegi could now see a ladder leading up and out of the garbage room. Kirigiri pulled something out of her pocket - a key - and inserted it into the lock that was installed in the wall to keep the metal gate from opening._

 _"Thanks for helping me out. I really appreciate it." He said as they watched the gate slowly lift up._

 _"Well, it would've been pretty rude of me to simply leave you down here after what I had witnessed. I'm sorry I took so long, I had to fetch the master key from my father's office." She said the word 'father' coldly like she hated using the term._

 _The grate had risen high enough for them to pass through and Kirigiri made her way towards the ladder with Naegi in tow. "Oh, not at all, Kirigiri-san! Although I'm a little confused on why you slid down the trash chute when you could've simply climbed down the ladder and opened the gate for me."_

 _She stopped short in front of him, causing him to nearly crash into her. He couldn't see the expression on her face but assumed that if he could he probably wouldn't be able to decipher it. She spoke sternly, "I…suppose I wasn't thinking as logically as I thought I was." And resumed walking. "Let's go." She swung herself up onto the ladder and Naegi followed suit._

 _Their friendship blossomed at the bottom of a trash heap._

 _**XxXxX**_

"I don't just go falling down trash chutes for anyone, you know."

"You must've considered me to be pretty special right from the start, then."

"I'll admit, such an overly optimistic person like you certainly intrigued me from the start, yes."

"Well, the feeling was mutual. Girls with noodle cups on their heads that would fall down trash chutes for a boy she barely knows intrigue me too." He laughed as she rolled her eyes and took another sip of her coffee.

They spent the next few minutes in comfortable silence, simply enjoying each other's company and watching the younger students bustle in and out of the cafeteria.

"Hey, Kyo-chan."

"Hmm?" She raised an eyebrow at the giddy childish grin on his face.

"I guess, in the end, you really 'fell' for me, huh?" He looked like he was holding back a laugh as his girlfriend groaned at the pun.

 _ **A/N:**_ _ **'Sup Lovelies? This fic will be at least three parts long so stay tuned. I'm trying to get as much done as possible before school starts (sophomore year, ugh), please leave a review, they make me feel so happy and motivate me to write more. I'll try to respond to them too if I can.**_

 _ **If you'd like to help the process of writing the chapters along, then please send me any goofy scenarios you'd like to see our little Hope and Detective in during their time at the academy. I already have a few but I still need a few more and contributions always help.**_

 _ **Remember to floss,**_

 _ **~Lexi**_


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